When I was studying Soviet politics at graduate school in the 1960s, my professors were adamant about one thing: Soviet leaders viewed the world through the prism of their ideology (Marxism-Leninism), while we Americans were democratic, pragmatic and open to discourse.
Therefore, we were bound to win the war of "hearts and minds."
The T-word of the era was not terrorism but totalitarianism. The "total" in totalitarianism signified that the Soviet take on realpolitik was all-consuming, blinding them to the realities on the ground.